Notion Ink Adam (the one with a PixelQi display) gets final specs, price and date

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

But at the same time, they do make money selling Kindles so they don't want people reading their books on say a Sony reader.

But this was my point. If others on this thread are right in saying that they make their money from content, why not open up another channel to sell that content through?

[gastan]

Originally Posted by ricou

I think I read somewhere that there would be
a 300 Euro something price would be for a model with a standard LCD screen
while a 800 Euro model with pixelQI screen.

But as someone rightly posted. If they postponed until August, then we will have probably a wider choice ! So probably cheaper options as well !

Why would I pay more than 1000 USD for a pixelQI, when I could get an Edge for half that price (although with two separate screens) ?

In addition, I am waiting on amazon's reaction as well!

I've been puzzled by this, also.

The specs for the two models - one with Pixel Qi and one with standard LCD - are exactly the same except for the screen. Since even Pixel Qi's own website says that they "...use standard LCD manufacturing materials and processes" you would think that there should not be much of a price difference just for the screen. I've read other statements on various web sites that make that same point.

If what is said about the process and cost of making the Pixel Qi screen is correct, there should be no reason for a Pixel Qi machine to cost twice as much as a similarly equiped LCD version. Either the higher price version is going to have extra "stuff" or it will be a rip-off.

[Marseille]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

But this was my point. If others on this thread are right in saying that they make their money from content, why not open up another channel to sell that content through?

They have 3 other channels, as mentioned. If you want eink, they want you to use their eink reader so you are tied to their store, if you don't, they want you to use their applications so you are tied to their store. They do the same thing with video -- the unbox software for PCs is req'd to use the service, and they have a special deal with Tivo to pipe it there as well. They cant' do that with music because the market has spoken so loudly in re: mp3 format, they don't have the clout to resist.

The real answer to your question of why books are treated different is that Amazon is dominant with books. If they were dominant in music or video, they could get away with tighter controls still. Since kindle editions make up such a large part of the market, Amazon is to ebooks as iTunes was to music.

Hopefully they turn out similarly -- and maybe once Amazon feels they have built up enough brand loyalty that they no longer need tight format controls to lock you down, they'll transition their store to something more open the same way iTunes went mp3 once they'd managed to build a little empire using tight DRM.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by gastan

I've been puzzled by this, also.

The specs for the two models - one with Pixel Qi and one with standard LCD - are exactly the same except for the screen. Since even Pixel Qi's own website says that they "...use standard LCD manufacturing materials and processes" you would think that there should not be much of a price difference just for the screen. I've read other statements on various web sites that make that same point.

If what is said about the process and cost of making the Pixel Qi screen is correct, there should be no reason for a Pixel Qi machine to cost twice as much as a similarly equiped LCD version. Either the higher price version is going to have extra "stuff" or it will be a rip-off.

There are no firm prices yet. No low ones, no high ones. No official distinction in price between standard LCD and Pixel Qi except device thickness. People are making assumptions based on assumptions based on assumptions with pricing estimates.

Will Pixel Qi be more expensive? Probably. How much more? Nobody bloody knows right now.

[deltop]

I'm sure their R&D costs will have been substantial, even if it's based on an existing tech. You always see a price premium in cases like this, at least until those costs have been recouped.

[gastan]

Originally Posted by deltop

I'm sure their R&D costs will have been substantial, even if it's based on an existing tech. You always see a price premium in cases like this, at least until those costs have been recouped.

True. But a company that is in the process of manufacturing "millions" of screens must expect to sell "millions" of screens. If sales projections are even only in the 3-4 million per year range (which wouldn't be excessive in a market that ships 40+ million units a year), a measley $100 premium would/could recoup upwards of a quarter billion dollars per year. That's a lot of R&D. And a $100 premium I could understand and live with. Any more would be a rip-off, IMO.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

But this was my point. If others on this thread are right in saying that they make their money from content, why not open up another channel to sell that content through?

Something like a Kindle app for the iPhone?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by badbob001

The vendors and content providers would view 'the best' as the one with the most market share and thus would have the most influence and control over their business decisions.

If that's your definition of "best" then you might as well eliminate everything else on your list and just say...

Okay, we have to develop a better ad campaign than apple's.

[BKeeper]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

It depends, BKeeper. It depends a lot.

On what, you ask? If Amazon are allowed to sell stuff on the iPad or not. Which we do not yet know.

I agree. And amazons play is to argue that the app simply syncs content that customers buy on Amazon's web. I don't think Apple can do much about it.

But the Kindle strategy has been to lower the barrier, to facilitate impulse buy. 1-Click ordering. They can't do that on the iPhone/iPad

We'll have to see how Apple reacts, but I'm pretty sure that the Amazon app "replicates core functionality" as they say ....

But most of my speculations arises from the fact that I don't think a new touch UI and user experience is useful with an e-ink display.
I think they intend to make profound changes to the UI and User experience.

Originally Posted by Kosst Amojan

So this machine come running windows by default? Sorry if it was asked earlier but I the picture the're showing has it running Enigma which is a skin for a program called Rainmeter that last time I checked was Windows only.

Enigma is the name for their custom UI which runs on top of Android.
Windows doesn't run on Tegra/ARM devices.

Originally Posted by deltop

I'm sure their R&D costs will have been substantial, even if it's based on an existing tech. You always see a price premium in cases like this, at least until those costs have been recouped.

Exactly, right now the 3Qi display is a bit more expensive (due to the polarizers it uses) but not much. In this case the premium comes not from cost but from perceived value. Anyway the premium is said to be around $20-$30 not even close to $100

That said, I believe that we will see the base Adam with PixelQi for around $500, not €800.

I don't think I'd pay €800 for the Adam... specially in September.

[A4-]

According to the specs the thing has a resolution of around 118 dpi (1024*600 @ 10.1"). A bit low for comfortable reading imo. My ereader has 160 dpi and that's barely enough for comfortable reading.
Then again it's not marketed as a ereader.

Hopefully the Mirasol devices will have about double. I've read somewhere that the proof of concept thingy had 220 dpi.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by A4-

According to the specs the thing has a resolution of around 118 dpi (1024*600 @ 10.1"). A bit low for comfortable reading imo. My ereader has 160 dpi and that's barely enough for comfortable reading.
Then again it's not marketed as a ereader.

Hopefully the Mirasol devices will have about double. I've read somewhere that the proof of concept thingy had 220 dpi.

Pixel Qi's reflective mode achieves around 200ppi. Backlit mode also gives possibilities with subpixel font smoothing, if it's used.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Pixel Qi's reflective mode achieves around 200ppi. Backlit mode also gives possibilities with subpixel font smoothing, if it's used.

Screen DPI is calculated from the pixel dimensions and physical size of the screen. So in reflective mode, there are more pixels? Well, if a color pixel is really made up of at least three subpixels (red, green, and blue), then I suppose black-and-white mode can make use of those subpixels. But in all the Pixel Qi videos, I have never seen the screen resolution change when reflective mode is turned on. So unless we're talking about a reflective-only mode device, then I doubt we'll see this higher-resolution mode.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by A4-

According to the specs the thing has a resolution of around 118 dpi (1024*600 @ 10.1"). A bit low for comfortable reading imo. My ereader has 160 dpi and that's barely enough for comfortable reading.
Then again it's not marketed as a ereader.

Hopefully the Mirasol devices will have about double. I've read somewhere that the proof of concept thingy had 220 dpi.

Are you asking for more resolution or a larger screen? 1024x600 is the same resolution of the latest Sony Daily Edition reader with a 7" screen. The Mirasol has a 1024x768 resolution in a tiny 5 inch screen. Your profile says you have an iliad, which means it's at the same resolution as the Mirasol but with a larger 8" screen.

For the sake of portability, I would prefer at most a 8" screen but wish the resolution is much much higher, which is needed to view fixed-resolution images (comics, manga). It would really be something to have an 8" Mirasol display with a resolution like 1600x1200 (250dpi).

[SCION]

Originally Posted by badbob001

...It would really be something to have an 8" Mirasol display with a resolution like 1600x1200 (250dpi).

Mouthwateringly so!

[athlonkmf]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Okay, we have to develop a better ad campaign than apple's.

What ad campaign? All apple did for the ipad is one keynote. Just because every site on the web hyped it up doesn't mean the ipad had a huge ad campaign.